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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Play trailer Poster for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian PG Released May 22, 2009 1h 45m Kids & Family Comedy Fantasy Adventure Play Trailer Watchlist
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43% Tomatometer 168 Reviews 47% Popcornmeter 250,000+ Ratings
Once the night guard at the Museum of Natural History, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now a successful purveyor of infomercial products. Soon after learning that his museum friends have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, Larry receives a distress call from Jedediah, who warns him that four of history's greatest villains have come to life and are planning to take over the Smithsonian first, then the world. Larry joins forces with friends old and new to stop the quartet's nefarious plans.
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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

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Critics Consensus

Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian is busy enough to keep the kids interested but the slapstick goes overboard and the special effects (however well executed) throw the production into mania.

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Critics Reviews

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Hank Sartin Time Out Rated: 2/5 Nov 18, 2011 Full Review Joshua Rothkopf Time Out Rated: 2/5 Nov 17, 2011 Full Review David Denby The New Yorker The result is pretty much a free-form traffic jam in which everyone fights everyone else. Jun 1, 2009 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review Though brimming with computer special effects and celebrity cameos, the movie’s marvels are hardly impressive, given that they’ve recycled everything from the first and just added a couple of new features for good measure. Rated: 1/4 Dec 15, 2023 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins A really, really stupid comedy. Rated: 4/10 Nov 29, 2020 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com Robin Williams, as well, explodes every single time he's onscreen in a performance with even more spark and humor than in the original. Rated: 2.0/4.0 Sep 18, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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K G I could never be able to tell if this was better than the predecessor or not (but I see that the OG Night At The Mueseum is the better one). This movie takes of a new adventure with the loveable exhibits being sent from the Natural History Museum to the Smithsonian mueseum & it seems that Larry Daley (now an inventor of the glow-in-the-dark torch) must get them to return. This movie brings out more than what the original had: adventuring to further away (real life) locations, more characters such as extra people like Mindy Kailing & Jonah Hill (Brundon). We have more exhibits coming to life such as Bill Hader & the Jonas Brothers as cupids. Some of the exhibits were CGI & the CGI characters wer not the greatest of effects (except Teddy Roosevelt/Robin Williams as a gold bust). There is an exhibit as a villain who is out of this world, Kamhumrah (portrayed by Hank Azaria who made hilarious villains such as Carlos (Hop) & Gargamel (the Smurfs duology)) who wanted to keep the tablet as his own (where it does not belong) so it seems the concept of the saga is making sure the tablet does not leave the Natural History mueseum. Some of the bad things Kamhumrah does is trap Jebidiah in a sand timer to drown him*. Other great elements were that not only statues came to life, but pictures of different colours as well - you could enter one & the colour quality of the picture & time looked so good on motion & screen, even in them came out & still looked their colours. There had been some heartfelt character chemistry, such as Larry & Amelia alongside the obvious chemistry between Jebediah & Octavious (like when he rescued him from the sand timer). The ending plotted something so good: extending open hours for night time so goers could meet the exhibits coming to life while a song by Earth, Wind & Fire plays. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 05/29/25 Full Review Ethan C While not as good as the original, I loved the chaos of utilizing all of the Smithsonian museums. Hank Azaria is a scene stealer; especially with the “do not close this line” scene. One of an all timer scenes. Fun movie with a lot of mischief. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/28/25 Full Review thiago s Filme legalzinho, o roteiro é bacana, os personagens são bons, a história é bacana e um pouco melhor do que o 1 filme, o filme tem cenas bacanas do ben stiller e dos demais menbros do elenco, o elenco é bom e alguns personagens ajudam a melhorar o filme, só que o vilão do filme é fraco que é o kahmunrah um egípcio antigo, na parte que ele abra o portão com placa dourada, era para vim um outro vilão para reinar junto com ele, mas não, o filme erra e só traz do portão alguns capangas de cara de coruja e depois esses capangas verm o Abraham Lincoln do tamanho gigante e voltam para o portão com medo dele e ainda fecha o portão, essa cena foi ruim demais, mas mesmo com isso o filme tem uma leve melhora depois e acaba de um jeito bacaninha, com tudo isso, eu recomendo esse filme. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/06/25 Full Review Pedro Henrique C Night at the Museum 2 is pretty messy, the main characters don't have as much screen time as in the first film. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 08/17/24 Full Review Santi M Not as good as the original, but still worth watching if you don't mind sparing the small amount of time it takes up to watch. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 07/19/24 Full Review Blu B Just complete nonsense and terrible all around. Subpar acting weighed down by flat/dumb humor including Darht Vader and Oscar appearing. A generic forgettable soundtrack with stupid cupid statue pop song numbers. The editing isn't good and everything else about it is terrible. It truly feels like crazy stuff just happens as they to free Wilson. The villian is so stupid as well. Suspension of dibelief is one thing, but this is just ridiculous. I love how in NYC no one is out late when a biplane lands, no one is out at the Washington Mall at all at night. The movie can be summed up in the final scene when a giant marble Lincoln battles a giant squid with ancient soldiers fighting egyptian guys with Earhardt flying around. Scenes drag terribly also because of the dumb flat humor and there is quite a bit of poinless reference humor as well because this was 2009 and that was a thing. Stiller's character has basically no motive and feels like he's sleepwalking through this half the time. It's basically a worse version of the first one that does nothing better. Skip This. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/24/24 Full Review Read all reviews
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

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Movie Info

Synopsis Once the night guard at the Museum of Natural History, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now a successful purveyor of infomercial products. Soon after learning that his museum friends have been shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, Larry receives a distress call from Jedediah, who warns him that four of history's greatest villains have come to life and are planning to take over the Smithsonian first, then the world. Larry joins forces with friends old and new to stop the quartet's nefarious plans.
Director
Shawn Levy
Producer
Shawn Levy, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
Screenwriter
Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Production Co
1492 Pictures, 21 Laps Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox
Rating
PG (Mild Action|Brief Language)
Genre
Kids & Family, Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 22, 2009, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 19, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$177.2M
Runtime
1h 45m
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